Pessimists complain about the noise when opportunity knocks

Optimists and pessimists, we’ve all met both. On awakening, optimists open the window and say with a smile, “Good morning, God!” Pessimists? They rub their eyes; clear their throat; look out the window and say with a frown, “Good god, morning!” Pessimists always see the dark side of clouds. Optimists? They don’t see the clouds at all because they’re walking on them! There are countless jokes about optimists and pessimists; however, in truth, it’s not a funny matter. If the rosebush you planted withered and died instead of bursting into bloom, would you laugh? If it’s disappointing when a plant fails to reach its full potential, how much more so for a human being. Sad to say, pessimists are thieves, robbing themselves of their own potential.

What is optimism? It is simply the belief there is more good in life than bad. It is reacting to life in a positive manner. It is an attitude of positive expectations. Pessimists say that optimists are Pollyannas looking at the world through pink colored glasses and living in a fantasy. Which group is grounded in reality? Are the realists pessimists or optimists?

Well, we’re all born optimists. It is our nature to be optimistic. But when we reach five or six years old, we’ve been subjected to so much negativity we begin to believe the world may be gloomy after all. As we grow into adults, we continue to hear the mantra of negativity, “It’s a rat race out there. No point in working hard when wages are so low. No point in working hard and making big bucks when the government is going to take it all in taxes. What’s the point of getting married when 50% of marriages end in divorce?” And so on and so on.

But if we were to stop, question, and analyze, how could we not be optimists? The fact that a creature as frail as man has survived and is now poised to colonize space should be ample proof of a naturally optimistic nature. Yet the question continues to rage: Who is being realistic, an optimist or a pessimist?

Surprise! The answer is both are realistic. Both are correct. Why? Because their disposition (optimism or pessimism) is a self-fulfilling prophecy. For example, a young man decides to become a stand-up comic. His friends think he’s nuts, but he’s an optimist. Because he thinks he has a chance, he keeps trying. And because he keeps trying, his chances keep increasing. True, he runs into obstacles, but he’s an optimist, so hurdles are seen not as objects of fear or frustration, but as puzzles in need of a solution. Because of his positive attitude, he doesn’t give up. And do you know what happens to people who don’t give up? They reach their goal! Now repeat in your mind the same scenario, but with a pessimist. What do you think the pessimist’s chances of success are? Can you see how their negative attitude set themselves up for failure?

The characteristics of pessimists and optimists have been identified. Whenever something goes wrong, pessimists believe the problem will continue indefinitely, affect all areas of their life, and is their fault. Optimists, however, believe that problems are temporary setbacks with limited impact and due to external causes. In a word, optimists are designed to cope, pessimists designed to mope.
So, what if we are pessimists, or not as optimistic as we would like to be? What should we do? We can begin by pondering the words of Frederick Mann, “One of the greatest powers in the universe is individual power of choice. And the most powerful choices are positive choices.” Yes, we can choose to change. We can choose to begin today.

How do we begin? We must become aware of our negative self-talk. We need to become aware of the negative scripts that are programmed in our mind and constantly play. Self-talk and scripts such as, “I can’t do that. I’m not good enough to . . . I’m afraid to . . . That makes me angry. No use trying since I’ll probably fail.” Whenever you catch yourself with a negative thought, immediately replace it with a positive one. It’s a simple but effective technique. So is working out in the gym. But if you want to reshape your body, working out one day for ten minutes will have no impact. The same is true for changing your attitude. If you’re serious, you have to work on it 15 ~ 20 minutes every day. Not much to ask for a new and much better you. If you come across an article or book that inspires you, read and reread it over and over again. Repetition is the key to success.

Of course, another good idea is to hang out with optimistic people. One place where you can do this is at an Optimist Club. Members begin their meetings with the following creed.THE OPTIMIST CREED

Promise Yourself –
To be so strong that nothing can disturb your peace of mind.
To talk health, happiness and prosperity to every person you meet.
To make all your friends feel that there is something in them.
To look at the sunny side of everything and make your optimism come true.
To think only of the best, to work only for the best and to expect only the best.
To be just as enthusiastic about the success of others as you are about your own.
To forget the mistakes of the past and press on to the greater achievements of the future.
To wear a cheerful countenance at all times and give every living creature you meet a smile.
To give so much time to the improvement of yourself that you have no time to criticize others.
To be too large for worry, too noble for anger, too strong for fear, and too happy to permit the presence of trouble.

Chuck Gallozzi lived, studied, and worked in Japan for 15 years, immersing himself in the wisdom of the Far East and graduating with B.A. and M.A. degrees in Asian Studies. He is a Certified NLP Practitioner, speaker, seminar leader, and coach. Corporations, church groups, teachers, counselors, and caregivers use his more than 400 articles as a resource to help others. Among his diverse accomplishments, he is also the Grand Prix Winner of a Ricoh International Photo Competition, the Canadian National Champion of a Toastmasters International Humorous Speech Contest, and the Founder and Head of the Positive Thinkers Group that has been meeting at St. Michael’s Hospital, Toronto since 1999. His articles are published in books, newsletters, magazines, and newspapers. He was interviewed on CBC’s “Steven and Chris Show,” appearing nationally on Canadian TV. Chuck can be contacted at chuck.gallozzi@rogers.com. View his photography at https://500px.com/chuckgallozzi. This article cannot be re-published without permission.

Comments

Michael, why would you think optimists are any less knowledgeable as to the negative things that are going on? Facts are facts.

It really comes down to whether you care about something. You may be pessimistic about the world, but what if your parent or sibling was very sick? Would you say best to be pessimistic and assume they are doomed? If you instead feel they might get better and focus on making that happen, you’d be somehow less knowledgeable?

Now being “realistic” I can agree on. You may feel it’s unrealistic that many of the problems in the world will get better, and I might agree with you despite being an optimist. Both an optimist and a pessimist can be realistic.

Pessimists are the real optimistic people of the world. Pessimists are atleast able to see the shit that the world we live in is in. And then now that they have acknowledged the fact that we are doomed they can accept it and move on. Where as the ignorance of optimists forces them to live their lives with lack of knowledge and thus they lull themselves into a false ‘peace of mind’.

JAWAD A. SEDIQI…if we were all optimist there would be no progress in the world. We’d be completely satisfied and disinclined to change. I challenge the adage, “Great minds think alike! Great minds are open to ALL possibilities, even ones that may be different…perhaps pessimistic.

Many pessimist’s have made great contributions and have changed the world! Look at Walt Disney..while challenged…he changed the world!

As a pessimist, I find quite a few grammatical errors in the “Optimist Creed” and deduce… optimism is not synonymous with perfectionism. As humans, we are ALL fallible and thereforeI believe pessimism to be a habitual thought process that can be changed, amended, and or scuplted. On the other hand, optimissim provides a smoke screen which filters ones fallibility and perpetuates ones lack of self-awareness. It’s okay to see the light as long as one is also aware of darkness. Pessimism allows one to see both light and darkness and thus the ability to make sound choices.

Sites like this that promote optimism are ridiculous. A true optimist is happy even when they are a slave, and think things like global warming or genocides in Darfur will work themselves out. True pessimists can actually see problems and they ways life sucks, but think it is futile to try to fix them. So as you can see both camps are wrong.

I hope one day optimism regains the bad reputation it had in Candide’s time. The world is not so simple, we should be able to acknowledge that things are bad and that things can get worse, but we should also not stop let this stop us from trying. If you are too simple to see the world in a less than black and white way, here’s what you should do: be pessamistic in the short term, so you avoid scams and harsh reality, and being optimistic for the very long term, so that you can atleast see a reason to keep living.

I would agree C.W. that someone can be an optimist, but be all talk with no action. Multiple personality traits need to be in place to not only take action, but to be effective. Perhaps pessimists are more adept at identifying risks and problems, however in my experience they are also less likely to do something about solving problems, and are less likely to be a source of inspiration and motivation towards getting others to do good things.

Its funny how optimist people can easily identify the problems of our world and not do a single thing about it…I guess that’s a little pessimism in optimist people after all…before you ask me what; poverty, death, unfair classes of living, what else is there?

I think the final word would be: It doesn’t really matter if anyone’s a pessimist or optimist…clearly a pessimist can see the dark, dark world we live in and only optimists can do something about it.

I vote that both are equally important, and that identifying pessimism without talking about its strengths and optimism without talking about its weaknesses isn’t all that fair.

But what do I know? I’m pessimist enough that I can see through this and optimist enough to write this down. What am I then?